The COVID-19 pandemic has thrust digitalization of courts upon us, without giving anyone a chance to consider the advantages or disadvantages of E-courts but the steps taken needs to be evaluated to ensure justice to the end without disrupt. The world has adapted to this new scenario and economic activities in the corporate world are being conducted by working from home, conducting meetings through Skype and conferences by Webinar and Zoom.

Here we talked with Mr Ankit Sharma, a practicing lawyer in Delhi, who had done virtually mutual divorce very enthusiastically and loved the new way of proceeding. He further added that the court is very lenient in trail, and helping new users/advocates who are not much aware of the system.

Even though the courts have stopped Advocates from coming to court, important matters effecting the life and liberty of citizens are being adjudicated by courts using video conferencing from virtual court rooms.

Whereas there are others who are of the firm opinion that video conferencing cannot replace open court hearings since, the fundamental principle in the administration of justice is that courts must be open to the public.

Some enthusiasts, policy makers and other influencers want court hearings to be conducted via video conferencing even after normalization of the situation due to availability of new technology and to provide access to justice for litigants staying in far flung areas.